Perhaps realizing his newcomer status would not immediately win him friends in all quarters, Phil Quickenbush set about racking up support. He introduced a newsletter for staffers. It appeared in teachers' boxes on Friday afternoon, printed on orange bond paper. Teachers getting ready to punch out and leave the Bronx for the weekend were accosted by rows of flaming leaflets in their boxes. They pulled them out, they walked away reading, sometimes pausing in mid-stride to absorb some piece of alarming news.
Headlined "From The Desk Of The Chapter Leader", the newsletter began, Dear Fellow Staff Members, then after presenting innocuous union news it tore off in a direction that even the cantankerous Steve Kite could not have dreamed up:
The list of reported incidents occurring in and around John Wayne Cotter
H.S. is as follows:
Monday, November 15:
English Teacher receives puncture wound from unknown assailant
while passing between homeroom and Period 3.
Tuesday, November 16:
Car belonging to Business Teacher is stolen.
(13th attempt, 1st success)
Wednesday, November 17:
2 students wounded by knife-wielding students. Students who
threatened Math teacher (see last week's newsletter) again
stalks the teacher.
Thursday, November 19:
4 students given Desk summonses for setting fire to mailbox
at the corner of the school.
Friday, November 19:
School Aide and Security guard wounded during melee in Student
Cafe. Six students arrested as a result of the melee.
A warning to Administrators: Issac Newton, in his Third Law of Motion, stated
that whenever one body exerts a force, the second always exerts on the first
a force which is equal in magnitude, opposite in direction, and has the same
line of action. (University Physics, 5th Edition)
For Bilicki this was really too much. "Typical right-wing, scaremongering tactics," he
whispered harshly whenever he came across someone diligently reading the newsletter. "Does anyone know what he plans to do about all this?"
No one knew. Everyone seemed too alarmed to ask.
Many confessed they were astonished to learn what was going on. Hitherto, teachers who worked, say, in the east wing of the building had no way of knowing that incidents "like this" happened in the west wing – or in the basement, or outside the building – so regulated were their movements, so fearfully constricted their habits.
Bilicki was among the few stubbornly unimpressed. This was nothing but crass, vile politicking. A piece of fraudulence. The man describes a situation in colors of terror and despair, then he offers, not solutions, but himself as savior. A scam as plain as daylight.
"But, Brendan, you can't argue with the facts, les petits faits vrais," Mrs. Rojas (Foreign Languages) said to him pleasantly. "These terrible things are happening. Maybe not in your neck of the woods. But that doesn't make it less frightening."
Quickenbush was seen, next, consulting with the principal, stepping into the office of the principal. He offered proposals to the principal. At faculty meetings the principal made a point of thanking Mr. Quickenbush for providing useful information. She promised to work closely with Quickenbush and the Union to find solutions to the problems at John Wayne Cotter H.S. She praised the staff for their professionalism "in the line of fire".
"These guys," Bilicki shook his head. "What a piece of Japanese theatre."
(from "Ah Mikhail, O Fidel!" a novel by N.D.Williams, 2001)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 